Toyota Avalon Navigation System

Comments

Well, for those who were curious, the new NAV does not automatically re-calc your route...you have to tell it to. You go to Route/Detour/then you can calculate a detour OR tell it to re-calc the route completely. I like the units that re-calc for you; however, I can live with it.

Can someone help me with this please. I set my destination or POI - when traveling by freeway the voice command instructs me to exit at each 'exit' and then will instruct to turn L or R, however that is not even my destination. I read the manual and it said on freeway driving a dual screen appears at each exit but the system tells you to exit. I want it to stay on a single screen with my route displayed, not all these exits. So confusing.

Ref message 389 from robsis: Hello, I have been following your comments about the nav system. Did you find a way to reset the system so that it does re-calc when you vary from the route? How about another issue I have seen on this forum: can "you" make adjustments / entries to the nav system while the car is in motion? Full disclosure: I am *this close* to buying a new 2011 LTD with nav if I can be convinced -- by the good posters to this forum -- that the nav is greatly improved in the 2011 model. The overall tone of this forum, however, concerning the nav, is that the extra price is not worth paying... Thanks from a first-time poster, bckelly121@cox.net

You can make adjustments on the move using the voice mode. It took me a few times to do it smoothly; however, it is easy to do and the voice recognition is excellent, at least for both me and my wife. As to re-calcing the route, my wife has been sick with pnemeunia (sp) so we've been nowhere but local for the last month. I do like the touchscreen and a friend with an '09 commented that he liked it much better than his. The integration also carries over to the stereo system, so it is quite nice. You do lose two of the six CD capacity, however, if that is a concern (not to me...four is plenty, along with the SAT...).

I hope to take a trip this weekend and test the re-calc. Will report back if I have info.

before you buy a 2011 Avalon, (I have a 2006 LTD) go look at the Hyundai Genesis......the V6 is close enough in cost and a better car.....I think the V8 is my next car.....my nav sys still freezes about once a week, even though dealer updated the disc.

I have a 2007 Avalon and therefore follow these forums. My Avalon does not have Nav. There have been many complaints about the older models Nav. systems. I wanted to buy a 2011 4Runner as we do some off roading. I had been using a Tom Tom for 3 years and it has limitations although it generally got me to where I wanted to go. The new Toyota models integrate the satellite radio, the Nav. and in the case of the 4Runner a back up camera. So I was concerned' as you seem to be, as as to whether the Nav. would be a pain in the neck. I have bought three Toyotas from this dealer so when I brought my Avalon in for service, they let me take a 2010 4Runner for 3 hours to see how it fit in my garage etc. I started playing with the NAV and the touch screen was very easy to use. If you ignore the directions given to the destination, it very quickly adjusts to where you are and gives new instructions. You can operated it underway also. I bought the 2011 4Runner which is virtually unchanged from the 2010 and love the Nav.

Why don't you try the same thing. See if the dealer will let you have a 2010 or 2011 Avalon demo for several hours and play with it. They have a separate manual for the Nav/Satellite radio system.

Robsis-I am sorry that I did not reread your post before sending mine. If you already have the Avalon and it won't recalculate routes automatically, I think that something is wrong. Why don't you sneak into your wife's car when she is asleep and give it a try.

we are taking a trip soon, so I will be giving it a try by intentionally going the wrong way. I called my friend at the dealership and he said to disconnect the battery to re-boot the system when it re-connects. I'm not sure that is the answer; however, will report back about my experience, no matter what i decide to do..

Fortunately, I don't have too many Sat presets.....if I end up trying the reset test...but I'm hoping that is my last resort....

I tried a suggestion I read on another website. The trip-odometer that you push to reset will also rotate. If it is rotated fully to the right, Day mode will always be on. if you rotate slightly to the left, the screen will turn dark (Night mode), just like it is intended.

Checked with my dealer today and was told an update DVD for my 2007 Avalon would be $199. Since reading some of the results obtained by other Avalon owners I'm tempted to just take it to the dealer and have them do the update. Then if there's a problem it on their dime....and time.

My wife loves her 2007 Avalon XTS with the nav system although it doesn't show the most recent street additions...which is a problem in Southern California. However, she and her mother took a trip back east last year and rented a Hyundai Azera. I was surprised she liked the Hyundai better than her Avalon! She said the ride was better and the car overall more comfortable. Power was the same and she claims the interior is "prettier" than the Avalon. Go figure....

I fixed mine yesterday after visiting all of these forums and the dealer to no avail. Older Avalon nav units have a two piece board in the NAV unit, newer ones like mine are one piece. For those with older (before 2007 when I got my Avalon) you can open up the NAV computer and carefully flip over the smaller board and press a momentary interrupt button switch and hold it for one minute. This will fix the older ones. The one piece boards are trickier, but still simple and cheap. You need to locate the camera/watch battery which is located in a clip that the battery is soldered to, and de-solder the three points that fit into the board from underneath the board. Place the soldering iron tip on each pin while pulling gently from above the board on the battery and do this three times until it is free from the board. By the time you clean the three pins off of excess solder (just heat up and wipe off with a dry cloth) and align the three pins above the holes you are going to re-insert them in, it will be time to reassemble. Just place the three contact pins on the battery holder above the three holes in the board and while heating up the board from below with the soldering iron tip, push each pin, one at a time back into the board as you are heating the appropriate hole-- and in three quick steps you will be finished with the tough part. Now put it back together and turn the car back on to see the programming screen come on (right after the WHITE scary screen)-- do not turn off the car or power until the programming is complete.

Now, you will need to locate your current position back to where you actually are, and point the cursor in the direction you are actually facing. Then you are set and the vehicle navigation system is back in action. You will need to reprogram your HOME and any other saved marked points.

Good luck, be careful, go slowly, and you will win this for the cost of a cheap soldering iron. Get one with a small sharp point, since the three points are relatively small on the board.

Just purchased a 2011 LTD with Nav and can't find out how to have only audio stations appear on the screen. It defaults to the map every time. I turn the display off and everything is off. With my 07 Avalon I could toggel between audio, Nav and climate independent of each other.

That's where I found it. Page 206. It's easier to find things if you go to the owner's website and download each section of the manual and then use some freeware to combine them into one "pdf" file. It's then searchable!

Dealer wanted 6300 bucks to fix(Replace Unit). Followed your instructions with a small drawback. I broke one of the battery prongs removing it and had to get a new battery. $3.59 delivered from e-bay. It took about 5 minutes for the GPS to figure out where it was but its working perfectly. It still is a horrible GPS. My garmin for 119 bucks is far superior except for the screen size.

The toggle switch has always been difficult to use from the first day we owned the car, but recently has become impossible to use in selecting any of the menu items such as using the navigation system, setting the clock, looking at mileage info, etc. Is there a way to replace only the toggle switch? Our dealer insists they have had no problems with the system and that no problems exist.

I just bought a beautiful, almost new (7500mi) 2010 Avalon. The nav system is driving me crazy! I have used a Garmin for several years and it works great most of the time. The Toyota destination entry system does not recognize streets or town that have existed for years and it won't allow progressing further with data entry if a street is not on its list. How can you solve this? I have ensured I am in the correct region of the US.

Only one way to "correct" the problem is to install the latest dvd into the unit in the trunk (left side, under the cover). However, I would NOT do it myself because many people have ended up with problems not only related to the map system alone. Remember, your dashboard screen serves several functions. Local cost is about $200 for the dvd but, if you choose to go this route have the dealer do the installation because if a problem arises the dime will be on them. I simply keep my $100 Magellan unit in the car if I really need to have an exact address. In this regard Toyota has really screwed up on what is otherwise a very fine car.

Okay, maybe it's not good for the driver to enter information while driving but what about the passenger? Couldn't someone figure out that if a passenger is in the passenger's seat they could enter information? The seat belt bell will ring if someone is in that seat without their belt in place so information is available somewhere! Maybe a button on the far right side of the dash could be pushed to allow the passenger to enter information. With all the hoops you have to jump through to turn off the seat belt bell seems like a small process to allow the passenger to enter route info. Just a thought.